Red Sox swept up by Rays

BOSTON — Considering how they sort of forced things down the Rays' throats, the Red Sox probably deserved to lose two games to Tampa Bay on Thursday.

Call it a bobbleheader sweep.

Tampa Bay won in the day, 2-1, and at night, 6-5, as Yunel Escobar homered off Koji Uehara in the top of the ninth. Boston led the second game, 5-4, going into the eighth, but Junichi Tazawa blew the save in that inning, then Uehara gave up the fatal blow in the ninth.

The Sox wound up playing two, over the objections of the Rays, because of Wednesday night's rainout. That game was supposed to be the Dustin Pedroia bobblehead giveaway. Instead, that was done Thursday afternoon, and it seemed like the Sox rescheduled so quickly so as to not have the dolls hanging around.

Boston was 4 for 20 with runners in scoring position and left 21 men on base in the two games. In the night game, the Sox stranded six men in the final three innings and led off the eighth and ninth with doubles, but could get neither runner around.

In the eighth, Will Middlebrooks struck out with Xander Bogaerts at third and one out. In the ninth, Mike Napoli and Bogaerts took called third strikes with Shane Victorino at third.

The night game turned when neither Bogaerts nor Middlebrooks could catch Evan Longoria's popup leading off the sixth. Sean Rodriguez followed with a home run off Felix Doubront one batter later to turn a 5-2 Boston lead into a 5-4 game.

Rodriguez, hitting .167 entering the game, was 3 for 4 with two doubles and a home run.

"That's a ball that (Bogaerts) has to take charge of," Farrell said. "At the time, it didn't seem like a lot."

It resulted in an unearned run. The Sox have surrendered unearned runs in nine games this season and are 2-7 in them.

Tazawa allowed the tying run in the eighth, making him 0 for 9 in save situations for the last two seasons. Escobar made a loser out of Uehara with a bullet into the Monster seats leading off the ninth.

Uehara has seemed very average in his last few appearances, but he said nothing is wrong with him. "I just got the ball up," he said. "Physically, I feel fine. It happens every year in April and May. I think it happened last year, too."

In a two-week span from mid-April to early May, Uehara allowed 8 hits, 4 earned runs and 3 homers in six innings.

Boston spent a lot of the time between games of the doubleheader bemoaning a close call that went the wrong way in Game 1. First base umpire Toby Basner called Pedroia out at the plate for the second out of the seventh inning, and the call survived a challenge, something neither Farrell nor starter Jake Peavy liked.

Peavy, the losing pitcher, was especially vocal in his criticism, which likely will cost him some pocket change.

"They've got to get their act together," Peavy said about the replay process. "It's a joke. It's embarrassing, and for everyone to see. These plays are deciding games. I know what I see, and you can't talk me into seeing something different. I don't know if they're trying to protect someone or what."

Pedroia was trying to score what would have been the tying run. He was on first with two out when David Ortiz lofted a fly ball to deep left-center. It was clear the ball would either be over the Green Monster or off it, so Pedroia got a good start.

Third base coach Brian Butterfield waved him home, but Tampa Bay executed a perfect relay from Matt Joyce to Yunel Escobar to Jose Molina. The ball arrived just before Pedroia, and Molina made a sweep tag as Pedroia tried to catch the edge of home plate with his toe.

While Farrell insisted that the Sox' video feed showed Pedroia being safe, Pedroia was less than convincing in his version of the even

t. He said he thought his foot got a piece of the back part of the plate, adding that he wasn't even sure he was tagged.

"I didn't feel anything," he said. "Should I go back out there and tag it?"

In order for a call on the field to be overturned on replay, the evidence has to be conclusive. Pedroia was involved in the play, and he didn't know if he actually touched the plate, or was tagged, which sounds pretty inconclusive.

Peavy gave up a home run to David DeJesus in the third, then forced in what proved to be the winning run with a bases-loaded walk to DeJesus in the fourth.

Neither of those mistakes were the umpires' fault.

But it was the Red Sox' fault they wound up playing, and losing, two games on what otherwise would have been a perfect night for just one.